{"id":705579,"date":"2026-07-22T16:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705579\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:58:21","slug":"pod-of-dolphins-die-within-24-hours-after-stranding-at-albanys-princess-royal-harbour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705579\/","title":{"rendered":"Pod of dolphins die within 24 hours after stranding at Albany’s Princess Royal Harbour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelve pantropical spotted dolphins have died over 24 hours in Western Australia’s Princess Royal Harbour in Albany.<\/p>\n

The dolphin carcasses were reported on Wednesday by Parks and Wildlife officers to the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).<\/p>\n

A DBCA spokesperson has confirmed the dolphins were first observed as a pod of 12 which appeared stranded in the shallows at the Albany Waterfront Marina on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

A pod of pantropical spotted dolphins were found dead in Albany over a space of 24 hours. (ABC Great Southern: Astrid Volzke)<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said one of the animals had died and was removed by Parks and Wildlife officers.<\/p>\n

The others were refloated by members of the public and returned to the ocean, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

DBCA said 10 of the dolphins re-stranded overnight. Seven subsequently died.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said based on veterinary advice the remaining three dolphins were humanely euthanased this morning.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Parks and Wildlife officers transported dolphin carcasses out of the Albany marina. (ABC Great Southern: Astrid Volzke)<\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, members of the public spotted the 12th dolphin on the rocks in the marina. \u00a0<\/p>\n

DBCA Albany regional leader for nature conservation Deon Utber said the species of dolphin was typically found further north in warmer water, but could travel south.<\/p>\n

“It is certainly unusual to have these tropical species down in this area,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We do on occasion have tropical species come down, particularly with the Leeuwin current.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“These particular dolphins we’ve had once before in the Albany area, out of Two Peoples Bay a bit over 10 years ago<\/a>, and there have been other occurrences of these animals in Augusta, Perth, in the Pilbara and Broome as well, but rare to see them in Western Australia.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Deon Utber says the humane thing to do in these circumstances is to euthanase the animals. (ABC Great Southern: Astrid Volzke)<\/p>\n

Mr Utber said when dolphins come into shallow waters like this, it was usually because they were compromised in some way.<\/p>\n

“The humane thing for animal welfare is euthanasia as animals, because they are not self-deploying, they’re not going back out into the wild by themselves, so they’re severely compromised.”<\/p>\n

Samples sent away for testing<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said samples were obtained from the carcasses for testing.<\/p>\n

A shark advice has been issued by Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development (DPIRD) due to the dolphin carcasses at Melville Point and the public are urged to avoid the area.<\/p>\n

A DPIRD spokesperson said in a statement the samples collected by DBCA would be transported to Perth for analysis.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions has collected samples of the deceased dolphins for testing. (ABC Great Southern: Astrid Volzke)<\/p>\n

“DPIRD is collecting samples for precautionary testing for H5 bird flu from a range of priority species including marine mammals as part of ongoing surveillance efforts,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“DPIRD provides updates on all positive cases.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twelve pantropical spotted dolphins have died over 24 hours in Western Australia’s Princess Royal Harbour in Albany. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[234023,70817,5263,234022,234025,234024,90,56,54,55,17285,4407],"class_list":["post-705579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-albany-beach","tag-dbca","tag-dolphins","tag-mass-stranding","tag-melville-point","tag-princess-royal-harbour","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wa-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}